It's said that it took only about 1 minute for the Sherman to traverse its gun turret 360 degree while it took twice as long for the Tiger to accomplish the same feat (electrically or manually). In close quarter fighting, that can be a major disadvantage for the Tiger. Anyone know how the other major tanks of WWII compare? Such as the T-34s, JS, Panzer 4 and 5, Pershings....
Turret rotation varied depending upon the revs of the tanks engines, so a lot of comparison doesn't really work FNG
Pz.Kpfw.IV: 22.5 seconds Pz.Kpfw.Panther: 19 seconds Pz.Kpfw.Tiger Ausf.E: 60 seconds Pz.Kpfw.Tiger Ausf.B: 19 seconds
As far as I know, turret rotation time for the Sherman was 15 seconds rather than a whole minute, making it faster than most German tanks (see the previous post by Christian).
Are these times when stationary or the fastest they could do it? How many tanks rotational delay was affected by their revs? FNG
The Pz.Kpfw.Panther and Pz.Kpfw.Tiger (both) had a turret rotation relative to the main engine, the Pz.Kpfw.IV used the Auto Union, DKW-Motor, Typ ZW 500 engine.
The Pz 4 had 2 shafting in reducer for turret rotation in manually. The Pz 5 and 6 had hydromotor (about 4 h.p.), speed of rotation what was dependent of speed of rotation of tank engine. So that turret rotation manually (on the Pz 5), must to do about 900 rotation of handweel for turret rotation on 360. Even angle of inclination was 5-7 of degree, what turret was not rotation (manually). But most of all time for main turret rotation had the SMK - 12 minutes for 90 degree...
I wouldn't call it rediculously long - no more than 30 seconds for general target aquisition isn't that much when you have range superiority.
Thanks for the info, 19 vs 60 seconds for the two Tiger variants, that's incredible. Guess that's why the Sherman and T-34 and drive rings around the Tiger and not get hit, that's if they can get that close.
It wouldn't make much sense for them to try to move around the Tiger. The maximum speed of the Medium Tank M4 (76 mm) is around 39 km./h., or 10.83 m./sec. The Tiger I can turn its turret a full circle in 60 seconds Therefore, the Medium Tank M4 (76 mm) must be within (10.83 * 60 / Pi / 2) = 103.45 m. of the Tiger I before it can outrun the turrets turn speed - however at this range, the Medium Tank M4 (76 mm) is able to penetrate the Tiger Is frontal armour.
Problem is that can only drive that fast when it's on solid ground and then only at a streight line as turning a tank would require to slow down one of it's tracks....